Throwback Thursday: Someday Is a Dangerous Word

Making Room for Making Art

"We are tricked by a phenomenon of time: Hours and days pass slowly, but years pass quickly. A life passes quickly, but we always think we have plenty of time. Too often we get so consumed with how we spend our days that we lose track of how we are spending our lives."
--Sally Warner 

These are the opening lines of Sally Warner's Making Room for Making Art. I like the title of the book. It's not about art appreciation, but about getting the fire stoked to follow your creative urge.

All too many people who were once in touch with their creative selves have lost touch with that drive. Whether being creative with words, music, paint, sculpture, clay, pencils, or folded paper, there is something deeply stirring in the creative process.

 

You only live once. There is power in creative expression. It feels good for the artist, almost magical when things come together. And it can be enriching to others.

Paul Klee in 1920 said, "Art is a simile of the Creation." In that sense, every act of making, no matter how small, echoes something fundamental about being alive. 

And life, as Warner reminds us, moves faster than we think.

Years pass. Opportunities narrow. The assumption that “there will be time later” quietly fades into “why didn’t I?”

If you once had a love for the creative process, and that fire has grown cold, maybe it's time to stir the flames again. You only live once. Make a space in your life once more to follow your creative impulses.

A variation of this was published here in 2008